Research Interests

• Agricultural transformation processes
• Agroforestry
• Transboundary dimensions of farming systems
• Central Asia and Pakistan
• Participatory approaches to natural resource management
• Theories of human-environmental relations
  

Curriculum Vitae

2019-pres.

Group Leader TRANSECT, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development

2017-2019

Project Coordinator, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development

Project eAGROFORST – ‘Food security and livelihood improvement through agroforestry in Central Asia’

2018-pres.

Consultant, GIZ project ‘Biodiversity and ecosystem services in agrarian landscapes’ in Tajikistan and India, Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management

2018

PhD Human Geography, Freie Universität Berlin

2013-2017

PhD Researcher and Lecturer, Freie Universität Berlin

DFG-funded project ‘Climate change and multiple stressors in mountain areas. Vulnerability, adaptive capacity and human security in Nagar (Karakoram), Pakistan’ (2014-2017)

2012-2013

Research Assistant, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Project ‘AsianCitiesAdapt’

2008-2011

M.Sc. Geography – Geographic Development Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

2005-2008

B.Sc. Geographical Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin

Publications

Books

Schmidt, M., Steenberg, R., Spies, M. & Alff, H. (eds.) (2021): Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia. (Geographica Augustana 33). Augsburg.

Spies, M. (2019). Northern Pakistan: High mountain farming and changing socionatures. Lahore: Vanguard Books. 416pp.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Spies, M. (2025): Local seed systems and Global China: The spread of Chinese hybrid seeds in Pakistan and Tajikistan. Journal of Peasant Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2025.2462762

Zuberi, M., Spies, M., Ø. Nielsen, J.Ø. (2024): Is there a future for smallholder farmers in Bioeconomy? The case of ‘improved' seeds in South Punjab, Pakistan. Forest Policy and Economics. Volume 158. Special issue on ‘Bioeconomy Governance in the Global South: State of the Art and the Way Forward’.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103100

Raab, C., Spies, M. (2023): Characterising cropland fragmentation in post-Soviet Central Asia, using Landsat remote-sensing time series data. Applied Geography. Volume 156.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102968

Alff, Henryk & Michael Spies (2023): Introduction: Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighbourhood. In: Eurasian Geography & Economics 64 (7-8): 797-810. (Special issue ‚Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighborhood‘)

https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2023.2258150

Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Missall, Siegmund & Martin Welp (2023): Path dependencies of (un-)sustainable land use in Central Asia. Central Asian Affairs 10 (2023): 239-269. (Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’). doi:10.30965/22142290-bja10039.

Spies, M.; Zuberi, M.; Mählis, M.; Zakirova, A.; Alff, H.; Raab, C. (2022) Towards a participatory systems approach to managing complex bioeconomy interventions in the agrarian sector. Sustainable Production and Consumption.

PDF  | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.03.020

Spies, M. (2021). Promises and perils of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Agriculture and export prospects in northern Pakistan. Eurasian Geography and Economics.

https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2021.2016456

Spies, M., Schick, A., Karomatov, S., Bakohodzha, B., Zikriyohon, K., Jobirov, S., Bloch, R., Ibisch, P.L. (2021). Adapting a participatory and ecosystem-based assessment impacted by the pandemic: Lessons learned with farmers in Tajikistan. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.750252

Spies, M. (2020). Commercialization versus de-intensification? Markets, livelihoods and agricultural change in northern Pakistan. ASIEN 156/157, 79–101.

https://doi.org/10.11588/asien.2020.156/157.15352

Alff, H., & Spies, M. (2020). Pfadabhängigkeiten in der Bioökonomie überwinden? Landwirtschaftliche Intensivierungsprozesse aus sozial-ökologischer Perspektive. PERIPHERIE 159/160, 334-359.
https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v40i3-4.06

Voigt K, Spies M. (2020). Female Education and Social Change: Changing Perceptions of Women’s Roles in Society in the High Mountains of Northern Pakistan. Mountain Research and Development. 40(4):R9–R16.
https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-20-00028.1

Werg, J. L., Grothmann, T., Spies, M., & Mieg, H. A. (2020). Factors for self-protective behavior against extreme weather events in the Philippines. Sustainability, 12(15), 6010.

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156010

Spies, M., & Alff, H. (2020): Assemblages and complex adaptive systems: A conceptual crossroads for integrative research? In: Geography Compass 14 (10): e12534.

https://doi.​org/10.1111/gec3.12534

Ruppert, D., Welp, M., Spies, M., & Thevs, N. (2020). Farmers’ Perceptions of Tree Shelterbelts on Agricultural Land in Rural Kyrgyzstan. Sustainability, 12 (3): 1093.

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031093

Spies, M. (2019). Mixed manifestations of climate change in high mountains: Insights from a farming community in northern Pakistan. Climate and Development, 1–12.

https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2019.1701974

Spies, M. (2018). Changing food systems and their resilience in the Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan: A case study of Nagar. Mountain Research and Development, 38(4), 299–310.
https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-18-00013.1

Spies, M. (2017). Changing assemblages of high mountain farming in Gilgit-Baltistan. Lahore Journal of Policy Studies, 7(1), 65–76.

Spies, M. (2016). Glacier thinning and adaptation assemblages in Nagar, northern Pakistan. Erdkunde, 70(2), 125–140.

https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2016.02.02

Spies, M. (2014). Klimaanpassung als Diskurs: Ungleiche Perspektiven zur Hochwasserproblematik in Jakarta, Indonesien. Peripherie, 136, 404–426.

Lutz, R., Spies, M., Reusser, D. E., Kropp, J. P., & Rybski, D. (2013). Characterizing the development of sectoral gross domestic product composition. Physical Review E, 88(1).
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.88.012804

Chojnacki, S., Ickler, C., Spies, M., & Wiesel, J. (2012). Event Data on Armed Conflict and Security: New perspectives, old challenges, and some solutions. International Interactions, 38(4), 382–401.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2012.696981

Other Publications

Spies, M. (2024): Agriculture and Chinese Agribusiness Investments in the Context of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In P. Abb, F. Boni & H. H. Karrar (eds.), China, Pakistan and the Belt and Road Initiative: The Experience of an Early Adopter State. London: Routledge, pp. 33-51. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032633411-3

Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Raab, Christoph; Zakirova, Aksana and Mehwish Zuberi (eds.)(2023): Sustainable Food and Biomass Futures? Localised Approaches to Agricultural Change and Bioeconomy. Eberswalde.https://doi.org/10.57741/opus4-837.

Spies, M (2023): Review of Frembgen, Jürgen Wasim (2022): At the foot of the Fairy Mountain. The Nagerkuts of the Karakoram/Northern Pakistan. Berlin: Reimer. Erdkunde, 76 (4), 307-308.

Spies, M. (2022) Der chinesisch-pakistanische Wirtschaftskorridor. Versprechen und Widersprüche für den Agrarsektor Pakistans, Geographische Rundschau 75/4, 16-19.

Zuberi, M., Raab, C., Spies, M. (2022) Landnutzungswandel im Baumwollgürtel Pakistans. Gen-Baumwolle, Agrardiversifizierung und ökologische Herausforderungen im Süden des Punjab, Geographische Rundschau 75/4, 20-25.

Spies, M. and Welp, M. (2021): Stakeholder-based knowledge mapping for re-establishing agroforestry systems in Central Asia. In M. Schmidt, R. Steenberg, M. Spies & H. Alff (eds.), Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia. (Geographica Augustana 33). Augsburg. pp. 38-48.

Alff, H., Schmidt, M., Spies, M. & Steenberg, R. (2021): Layered legacies – An introduction. In M. Schmidt, R. Steenberg, M. Spies & H. Alff (eds.), Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia. (Geographica Augustana 33). Augsburg. pp. 4-6.

Spies, M. (2020): Agrarwandel und sozial-ökologische Nachhaltigkeit. 
https://www.wissenschaftsjahr.de/2020-21/aktuelles-aus-der-biooekonomie/koepfe-des-wandels/agrarwandel-und-sozial-oekologische-nachhaltigkeit

Spies, M. (2020): High mountain agriculture and changing socionatures in Nagar, Northern Pakistan. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 54 (Dissertation Abstracts), 102-103. 
http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ebhr/pdf/EBHR_54.pdf

Spies, M. (2017). Multiple ‚Aktanten’ des landwirtschaftlichen Wandels im pakistanischen Karakorum: Das Beispiel Kartoffelanbau in Hopar, Nagar. In M. Schmidt, A. Follmann, & J. Poerting (Eds.), Geographien Südasiens 8: Extended Abstracts der 7. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien (pp. 26–29). Heidelberg: CrossAsia-eBooks.

Spies, M. (2011). Deconstructing Flood Risks: A Livelihood and Vulnerability Analysis in Jakarta, Indonesia. Berlin Geographical Papers 40, Berlin. 60 pp.